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Following weeks of embattling against the sustained pressure from various banks and other lenders, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) have put Deccan Chargers up for sale. This was made official after the owners issued a tender notice in an newspaper advertisement, inviting bids for the Hyderabad IPL franchise.

However, even as the bidding process is set to commence on Friday — with the deadline for its completion set for September 13 — the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) still remains skeptical about the whole procedure with the pending payment for the franchise’s foreign players their leading concern.

The board is also worried about how interested potential buyers would be considering the financial mess that Deccan Chargers finds itself in. Not to forget that the the tender clearly states that the new owner will have to start with clear the enormous liabilities of the DCHL group.

“As per RBI (Reserve Bank of India) guidelines, we (BCCI) can’t pay foreign players. It’s the franchises who have to take care of that as the players are contracted by them. With the mess that the Chargers are in presently, we are very worried about these fees in particular,” a top BCCI official said.

The Deccan Chargers squad during the previous IPL edition boasted of some big names from the international cricket circuit, including Sri Lanka’s Kumara Sangakkara, South African pacer Dale Steyn and Australia’s Cameron White among others.

Meanwhile, in contrast to what was expected, the new owners will not have the liberty to shift the team’s base to their preferred location. In fact, the tender notice insists that the team should continue to be called Deccan Chargers with Hyderabad remaining their base.

“The winning bidder will acquire from the DCHL on an “as is, where is” basis the right to own and operate the IPL team currently known as Deccan Chargers, which is and will continue to be based in Hyderabad and which competes in the Indian Premier League and which has the opportunity (if applicable and subject to qualification) to compete in each and any CLT20 which is staged from 2013 onwards,” the tender reads.

The interested bidders will have to pay a total of Rs 5 lakh by demand-draft or pay order favouring DCHL in which five per cent of the bidding amount will be acquired by the BCCI. The likes of Sangakkara and Steyn, however, it seems will have to keep their fingers crossed about their impending payments.